Just like Vincent Collet at the beginning of the month, Sergio Scariolo revealed the pre-selection of the Spanish team for the next EuroBasket, which will be played from September 1 to 18.
EuroBasket 2022 is fast approaching and, as always, it’s time to pull out the call-up lists for the competition. Long preparation requires, the coaches have all opted for fairly broad pre-selections to offer themselves a maximum of choices before reducing the list to twelve elements. If Vincent Collet still has sixteen players under his command, Victor Wembanyama having been injured, Sergio Scariolo has chosen to summon 22 players! An XXL list shared on the Spanish team’s Twitter account.
???? OFFICIAL | The list of #LaFamilia for the preparation of @EuroBasket 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣2️⃣.#EuropeanFashion #We are a team pic.twitter.com/Dyj7XDIwtu
– Basketball Spain (@BaloncestoESP) July 28, 2022
Many names that do not necessarily speak to the general public and for good reason, Spain has lost big since the Olympic Games last year. Sergio Rodriguez and the Gasol brothers having announced their international retirements (or even retirement for Pau), La Roja finds itself deprived of several of its historical leaders. To make matters worse, Ricky Rubio is also missing since he is still not fully recovered from his serious knee injury which occurred last December. To guide the Iberian succession, Sergio Scariolo can still count on sure values like Rudy Fernandez and Sergio Llull, the leaders of this selection, but also Willy and Juancho Hernangomez. Usman Garuba, little seen last season with the Rockets, will also be there.
We also note the presence in this list of Lorenzo Brown. Maccabi Tel-Aviv’s new combo guard, an American by birth, has obtained his Spanish papers in recent weeks and, like the Joel Embiid case in France, his naturalization has caused a stir from a number of people on the other side of the Pyrenees. Rudy Fernandez, captain of La Roja and therefore Brown’s new teammate, had also declared himself publicly once morest a little before mid-July. Not enough to change Sergio Scariolo’s mind, who knew the player between 2017 and 2019 at the Raptors and who wanted an additional confirmed player in the lead. As a reminder, Spain is in Group A of the Euro, with Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Belgium and Bulgaria.
Third in the last Euro, Spain is coming to the 2022 edition with a selection cut off from several of its historic executives. Will Rudy Fernandez and Sergio Llull succeed in leading the new Iberian generation to the podium?